“I really don’t believe that’s a possibility,” he said coldly. “And if you persist in—” He broke off and suddenly chuckled. “And now you’re trying to run me as you do the rest of Eve’s little army of rescuers? This is my hunt, and I’ve allowed you to come along for the ride. We’re not ‘we,’ and we have no common purpose.”
But at least he was smiling again. “Not even the common purpose of keeping you from becoming beheaded?”
“By you.”
“By me.”
She shrugged. “Why not help me, Zander? Don’t make me trail after you. As you said, there’s not much time. I’m trying to gather every bit of information I can, and we’re all having to frantically piece it together.”
“Yes, I’ve watched with fascination you trying to pull all those strings. Don’t try that with me. I’m no puppet.”
“Neither are Joe or Gallo. And Jane MacGuire is a tough cookie. We’re all just people trying to work together to keep Eve alive. If I seem to be making the effort to coordinate what’s going on, it’s because it’s so damn difficult to work through this web that Doane and his son wove years ago.” She added soberly, “And according to what Jane is telling me, Doane may not even be as terrible as his ex-wife. I told you what Harriet Weber said to Doane about not giving him the location of those nukes until he’d set you up for execution.”
“Yes, charming lady.”
“A beast, like her son, like Doane.”
“But with excellent taste in executions. She chooses the very best.”
“It’s not funny.” She shook her head. “I care about this, Zander. I care about Eve. I care about those millions of people who may die if we can’t stop Doane and that bitch from pressing that switch. Help me, dammit.”
He was silent. “No, it’s not funny. But I have problems with caring. I … think I may envy you. So much passion…”
“Help me.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” She moistened her lips. “Venable says you’re a brilliant man. Figure some way out of this nightmare. Look, there are two objectives tied in a Gordian knot. It would be easier if we only had to worry about Eve. But there are those two nuclear devices.” She held up her index finger. “Chicago. Jane, Trevor, and Caleb will have to find them and try to disarm them. Harriet Weber is in contact with Doane, and she may be the key to finding him. She’s also the one who knows where those bombs are located and can ignite them.”
“Kill her,” Zander said coolly.
“And risk having Doane killing Eve because he would have no chance to give his son his grand funeral pyre?”
“Killing her would be Venable’s decision.”
“Not mine. I want it all. I want Eve alive.” She held up another finger. “Seattle. Find the bomb stashed here. Find Doane and save Eve. Much less complicated than Chicago.”
“You’re being simplistic. It all relies on finding Doane.”
“And it’s all linked to Harriet Weber.” She met his gaze. “That’s why I can’t pull any strings. I have to depend on other people who care about Eve.” She paused. “Like you, Zander.”
“I told you, I have problems in that area.”
“I don’t give a damn. Work your way through it. This is scary stuff, and I need a partner. You won’t let me bring in Joe or Gallo. So you’re stuck with me.”
“Am I?”
“Are you?” she whispered. “Say yes, Zander.”
His gaze held her own for a long moment. “What a Delilah you are, even when that’s not your intention. Yet you’re not really a Delilah, more like a woman from an Ayn Rand novel. I’m beginning to pity Gallo.”
“Say yes.”
He looked away from her. “Again, too simplistic. I’ll consider your proposition and see if it suits my purpose.” He leaned forward and told Stang. “Find a hotel. I need to have a meal and make a few phone calls.”
Catherine was surprised. “So soon? You only contacted one person, that Monte Slater. And you said he didn’t know anything. Maybe you should try someone else.”
“Slater has a pipeline to everything that goes on in Seattle. He’s expert at information gathering. If he doesn’t have a line on Doane, no one does. He’ll call me if he hears anything.”
“There may be someone better. You should go out on the streets and find them yourself,” she said. “Or let me go. I don’t know the city, but I know how to dig. Before I was recruited for the CIA, I made my living in Hong Kong selling information.”
“So I heard,” Zander said. “I’m sure you were extraordinary.”
She shrugged. “I was hungry. That’s who we need now. Someone who is hungry. Tell Stang to pull over and let me out. Give me my chance to find Doane.”
“Zander?” Stang asked, his gaze on the rearview mirror.
“I think not,” Zander said. “We’ll do it my way. The hotel, Stang. I wouldn’t dream of throwing Catherine out in the streets to face who knows what criminal elements.” He smiled faintly. “She might offer to act as their bodyguard.” He glanced at Catherine. “Besides, our guest needs to rest, but she won’t do it. She’ll probably spend her time investigating the area’s driftwood. Right, Catherine?”
She didn’t answer the question but looked away from him and out the window. “Say yes, Zander.”
Chicago
THE FIRST PALE STREAKS of dawn were creeping over the horizon when Margaret’s bus entered the city. Time to announce her arrival and find out where in this huge city she could find Jane, Margaret thought. She pulled out her phone and started to call Jane. Then she stopped as she glanced at the sunrise. Why wake Jane at this hour? She needed all the rest she could get. No, she could get the information from Caleb or Trevor, and she didn’t give a damn at the moment if she woke either one of them. They were both definitely in her bad graces.
She dialed Seth Caleb. “I’ve reached Chicago. Would you like to tell me where to find Jane, or do you still want to play games?”
“You’re the one who extended the play by becoming incommunicado. You know Jane would have made sure that you’d be brought here safely.”
“I had to make a point so that you wouldn’t be so stupid again.”
“Point taken,” he said dryly. “Why are you calling me instead of Jane?”
“She’s not well. I didn’t want to disturb her.”
Silence. “She’s much better now. And I, for one, wouldn’t mind if you disturbed her.”
The words were spoken without expression. Yet Margaret could sense the darkness. “I don’t go by what you mind or don’t mind, Caleb.” She paused. “But if Jane is having problems with you, I’d better know about it. Where are you?”
“Lakeside Marriott. Room 1730.”
“And Jane?”
“I didn’t ask her. Somewhere on this floor. You’ll have to find her yourself.”
Something was definitely not right. “I told you, I don’t want to wake her. I’ll come to your room.” She hung up.
She stared thoughtfully out the window. Storm clouds and an explosion on the brink. What had been happening in these last hours? Well, she would know soon. At least, he had said that Jane was better. Which might be the cause of those storm clouds. It was just as well Margaret was on the scene to act as buffer.
Lakeside Marriott. She got to her feet and weaved her way down the aisle to talk to the bus driver. His name was Harry Milton and after hours of casual conversation he probably liked her well enough to do her a favor. If she handled it right.
“Hi, Harry.” She beamed at him. “Do you know where the Lakeside Marriott is? Do you suppose it’s too far out of your way?”
CHAPTER
13
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Margaret was knocking on the door of Room 1730.
Caleb opened the door. “That was quick.”
“The bus driver dropped me off.” She strolled into the room. “I didn’t want to waste time getting transportation from the bus station. You have to catch me up with what’
s been happening since you arrived here.” She dropped down in a chair by the balcony doors. “First, Harriet Weber. Anything?”
“A telephone call from Doane.”
She stiffened. “What?”
“I thought that would make you sit up and take notice.” He sat down opposite her. “And it was something of a role reversal from what Venable thought.”
“Tell me.”
She listened closely as he described in detail the conversation between Doane and his ex-wife.
“Holy shit.” She shook her head. “Yeah, I can see the role reversal. She’s seems very dangerous. Sort of a black widow devouring her mates.”
“Trust you to compare her to one of your nature friends,” Caleb said. “Personally, I see Harriet as very human, with abundant Borgia qualities.”
“I don’t have any black widow friends,” she said absently. “I’ve tried but I can’t communicate with insects. And I wouldn’t choose a black widow anyway. It may be natural, but I can’t bear the thought that they eat their mates.” She was still thinking about Harriet. “If she’s in control, it opens an entire new view of what we might—Have you called Kendra?”
“Yes, I was designated official town crier. I called both Catherine and Kendra. Catherine was a good deal more receptive than Kendra. Oh, and she gave me some more info about where Doane might be keeping Eve. Something about a graveyard of driftwood…” He briefly filled her in on those details from Ben Hudson. “She’d already told Kendra, and Kendra was interested but impatient. She said that she was being bombarded, and she didn’t need that right now. She said between Kevin’s journal and the letters, she was going crazy.”
Margaret nodded. “She’ll be better soon. Puzzles drive her crazy. Her mind works double time until she sees the connections. But I think she’s beginning to do it.”
“How do you know?”
“I talked to her a few hours ago when I was on the road. Something suddenly occurred to her, and she brushed me off and sent me on my way. I made her promise to call me.”
“Will she do it?”
She looked at him in surprise. “Of course. She promised me. She’s like Jane. Honor and fair play mean everything to her. I’m expecting a call from her at any time.” She shrugged. “And besides, it’s the only way Kendra can participate without being on the spot. She’ll probably try to use me as her stand-in.”
“And you don’t object?”
“Not unless it interferes with my helping Jane. Kendra is very clever and won’t let that happen. She knows that’s why I’m with Jane.”
“You’ve made that crystal clear.”
She leaned back and studied him.
Darkness again, and the storm was closer. “No one can say I’m not honest.” She paused. “For instance, I don’t care about all this lust and emotional fireworks you and Trevor are obviously experiencing around Jane. I’ve never gone through it, so I can’t see what all the shouting is about. I’ve never been able to read you, but I’d guess on your part it’s probably purely animalistic, and that’s part of nature. Trevor is on a higher plane, and I think he genuinely cares about her.”
“I’m really not interested in your opinion, Margaret.”
She nodded. “Because you screwed up.”
He didn’t answer.
“You told me Jane was better. That means you probably did that blood thing that you did to her before. Right?”
He slowly nodded.
“And that you didn’t mind if I disturbed Jane. I had to think about that for a minute.”
“But I’m sure you came up with an answer.”
“You wanted her to be disturbed because she was with Trevor.” She tilted her head. “And at this time of night it’s logical to assume that they’re sleeping together.”
“Very logical.”
“So you did something she didn’t like.”
“Wrong.” He smiled recklessly. “I did something she did like … too much.”
She shook her head. “If Jane went to Trevor, it’s probably because you did something pretty bad. You might not even recognize that it would seem that bad to her. You’re two different species.” She thought about it. “No, you probably did know. But you’re one of the wild ones, and you didn’t care at that particular moment.”
“None of this is your business, Margaret. You’re annoying me.”
“I know. But Jane is my business. Mating is natural. I don’t give a damn what you and Trevor do to her as long as it’s okay with her. Maybe this time it wasn’t.” She frowned. “So, I thought I’d warn you that if you sent her running to Trevor, I’m going to help her to stay there.”
“The hell you are.”
The storm was no longer hovering but there before her. Dark eyes glittering with intensity. Lips drawn back from white teeth.
“I told you that honor and fair play mean a lot to Jane. I think that Trevor understands that. She’ll be safer with him.”
“Stay out of this, Margaret.”
“Can’t,” she said simply. “She took that bullet for me. I owe her. It’s not over until it’s over.” She smiled cheerfully. “But now that you understand my position, we can forget about it unless there’s a problem. I do find you very interesting, Caleb. Sometimes, the most unpredictable animals are the most fascinating.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “You’re incredible.” He added harshly, “And I don’t even know why I’m even listening to a half-baked kid like you.”
“Half-baked?” She thought about it. “I do have a lack of experience in some areas, but in others I’m ahead of the game. So I don’t think you can call me that. Maybe three-quarters baked?” She got to her feet. “And now I have to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water. Will you order me breakfast? Orange juice, roll, and coffee.”
“Haven’t you heard you shouldn’t eat in the hall of the enemy?” he asked sarcastically.
“Don’t be melodramatic. You’re not my enemy.” She moved across the room. “Unless you—” She stopped as her phone rang. “Kendra. I told you she’d keep her word.” She answered, “I’m already in Chicago, Kendra. You took long enough. I’m with Seth Caleb. I’m putting you on speaker.”
“Whatever,” Kendra said impatiently. “I think I’ve got it, Margaret. It was easy once I connected the dots.”
“I’ve seen you connect dots before, and there’s nothing easy about it,” Margaret said. “I don’t see the same paths that you do.”
“You have to come back to the prime realization that Harriet has always had a passion for English literature and move forward from there. She even infected her son, Kevin, with the same passion. He wanted to please her, and he knew that was the best way of doing it. It was clearly something they shared from the time he was a child.”
“Where are we going with this?”
“The setting of those explosives was the biggest thing in Kevin’s life at the time that he became involved with that al-Qaeda cell. He wanted to make Harriet a part of it.”
“Why?”
“From the comparisons Kevin made to Harriet about those poor little girls he raped and murdered, I’d guess he was trying to make up to her for the one crime for which she flatly condemned him.”
“She only disapproved because she thought it was dangerous for him.”
“But it caused her to leave him so that he’d have a safe haven if he needed it. I doubt if Kevin could be made to feel guilt, but he couldn’t stand the thought of not being perfect in her eyes. He needed to have her approval. In the case of the nuclear project, he needed to give Harriet the idea that they were on the same team. A sort of dark, macabre camaraderie.”
“Those who blow up a city together, stay together?”
“Or two cities. Yes, that’s the idea. That’s also the reason why Kevin made the journal too complicated for Doane to decipher. I believe Kevin was always playing his father off against his mother. But it was Harriet who he couldn’t bear to lose. He really meant the journal to go t
o Harriet, but he died before he could take it from Doane and give it to her.”
“And how did Kevin involve Harriet in setting up the explosion?”
“Why, he let her plan it. He made it an intimate game between the two of them. Harriet loved control, and he knew it. So he used the passion they both shared and let her choose how and where to pull off the explosion.”
“And it’s in that journal?”
“Nothing blatant. He wouldn’t want to give anything away to Doane. This was a precious secret between Harriet and him. Kevin teased her with it. Oblique references. There were also the same type references in the letters he wrote to her about that same time.”
“Dammit, what references, Kendra?”
“I’m getting to it. Don’t be impatient.”
“Why shouldn’t I be impatient? You’ve given me nothing but psychological mumbo jumbo about two sickos.”
“It’s not mumbo jumbo. It’s an analysis that is based on hours of—I can hear you seething, Margaret.”
“That’s impossible. But you know me well enough to realize that’s exactly what I’d do. More analysis. Now what is this intimate little charade Kevin and his mother were practicing? And what did it have to do with Harriet’s obsession with English Literature?”
“Everything.” Kendra’s voice was tense. “I think I’ve found what we’re looking for. Look, the journal was written to be read by Harriet, not Doane. We saw Doane’s house, and the man isn’t a reader. But Harriet could pick up on some fairly obscure literary references.”
“So we’re back to those literary references again. Give me an example.”
Margaret heard a rustling of papers on Kendra’s end of the phone. “Late in the journal, he gets on a rant about wanting the world to pay for its hatred against him. At one point, he says he’ll ‘see the brave day sunk in hideous night.’”
“I don’t recognize that. But, then, I’m more into Dr. Seuss than obscure English quotations.”